A Moment with Dr. Moore

Thinking Big at the Early Educators Leadership Conference

The CDA® has broadened in scope since starting its campaign 50 years ago to bring equity to early learning. In 1975, 12 early childhood teachers received their credentials at a ceremony in Washington, DC. And since then, the number of CDAs has exploded. Last year, the Council awarded more than 50,000 credentials, leading to a total of over a million CDA holders since the beginning. And I count myself among them. I’m proud to lead the Council, now marking its fourth decade, so I always look forward to meeting our CDA stakeholders at the Council’s Early Educators Leadership Conference (EELC) each year.

The first EELC took place in 2014, and its scope has grown, too, as the conference addresses changing issues in the early childhood field. But a constant in the conference has always been on fostering competence in the early childhood classroom. The point of the first EELC, as the conference program explained, was for attendees to “wrap your minds around best practices to advance the field, accelerate your professional practice and assess CDA candidate competence,”—still valid goals. But the Council’s ambitions for the conference have soared as we address changes in the field and the changing social context of the early learning sector.

The Council was looking to the future when Dr. Valora Washington, my predecessor as CEO, welcomed attendees to the 2015 EELC. The goal of the conference, as she explained, was still for attendees “to maximize the development of the next generation of the early care and education workforce.” But Dr. Washington wanted attendees to think bigger. “The conference,” she pointed out, “is for those who want to enhance their capacity to build and lead systems for our early childhood teachers.”

And this goal became more explicit when the 2016 EELC took on the theme of “Leadership that Matters.” In our conference program, we encouraged attendees to use the event to think beyond the classroom by “learning about frameworks that you can use to be a more effective leader and address cross-sector strategies to strengthen professional development systems.” We also urged them to “come together with people from other states to create a shared professional vision.”

And the Council’s own vision in 2016 was to “ensure that all professional early childhood educators and caregivers meet the developmental, emotional and educational needs of our nation’s youngest children.” The educators who filled this crucial role deserved respect, as the Council pointed out when our 2017 conference focused on “Elevating the Voice of the Educator.” And the conference gave attendees the tools to do so through sessions that explored ways to discuss and address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the early childhood workforce.

Our early childhood teachers deserved stronger leadership, the Council urged attendees at our 2018 EELC as we addressed the theme “Building Competency, Capacity and Career Pathways for the Early Childhood Professional.” It was time, as we told attendees, to “think differently, find opportunities to make your voices heard and take action” with the end goal being “the transformation of our workforce.” We called on attendees to become “change agents” who “brought power to the entire early learning profession” through “a shared identity and framework for improvement.”

The need for change was pressing as the Council urged at its conference on “Accelerating Your Leadership” in 2019. As changemakers, early childhood leaders had a mandate to address the big questions when it came to issues of fair compensation and respect for a long-undervalued and underpaid profession. So, the Council called on attendees to ask, “How can we be the dream we wish to see and what is our dream for the early childhood workforce?” As they mused over these questions, early childhood leaders should also embrace the concept of Sankofa, as we pointed out in the program. “You should learn from the past while moving toward the future,” an insight that stirred me when I became CEO in 2020 during the pandemic, which hit our sector hard and put a stop to the conference scheduled that year.

When we regrouped in 2021, our EELC addressed the timely theme “Shaping the Future: A Time for Resilience, Renewal and Reform.” Sure, the early childhood field had suffered a blow during COVID as centers nationwide closed their doors. But we would endure as I assured the attendees at the conference. And why was I so positive about the future? Because of the CDA’s past. Our flagship credential has survived—and thrived—for so long, I pointed out, because it has always responded to our community’s needs. The CDA gives early childhood teachers the competence and skills they need to help young children succeed. Now it was time for strong steps to rebuild their ranks.

How could we surmount roadblocks at this tough time for our profession? The conference provided a road ahead by putting a greater focus on advocacy and systems rebuilding. In our conference program, we urged attendees to “unpack the complexities of our field by analyzing the policy drivers, grassroots efforts and other practices that will optimize early education as a viable career pathway.” Equity for teachers, like the children they served, took center stage as I introduced a bold new project: reimagining the CDA process with our educators’ needs and input in mind. We wanted to streamline the process and make it more candidate focused, I explained, to deepen the pool of skilled, qualified educators at a time when they were in high demand by working families nationwide.

Meeting the demand required us to draw more folks to our field by “Leading Career Pathways to Equity,” the theme of our conference in 2022. Our educators deserve more chances to have rewarding, well-paid careers. Yet daunting roadblocks abound, as I pointed out, for many who want to rise in the early learning field, a particular problem for immigrants and people of color. Some lack the funds to pursue credentials or degrees that would lead to a promotion. Others need extra support as English language learners or lack care for their own young children. And these are all equity issues the Council is striving hard to highlight since change is long overdue.

That’s why we need new ways to “Inspire, Innovate and Impact” the future of our field, as we urged EELC attendees in 2023. One way was to bring more men into the field as we pointed out in a special panel, where several male early childhood teachers shared their insights and contributions. Another path to reform was through advocacy on the state level, so we featured several sessions on state programs that are helping educators earn their CDAs and insisting that they succeed.

As early childhood leaders, we, too, all need to insist on the need for change. So, the Council called on attendees at its 2024 EELC to turn their passion into action by “Igniting Innovation in Early Childhood,” last year’s conference theme. Radical change requires a wide range of partners as we pointed out in a panel on “Trailblazers in Innovation,” and the conference focused on collaboration as it gave a stage to the wide range of advocates for our field: state agencies, early childhood groups and institutions of higher ed that are joining to make our field more inclusive. Our stakeholders also include policymakers, scholars and business leaders who know that high-quality early learning lets today’s parents work, fuels economic growth and helps children gain the skills to build a better tomorrow. And attendees heard from these champions of child care when the conference closed with a screening of Starting from Zero, a film about the value and promise of early learning.

Support for our field has grown since the first EELC in 2014 when we focused on classroom practice. That’s still a critical issue. But now the Council is zooming in more on state policy and systems change, as we think bigger about how to advance the early learning field. We’ve captured our ambitions in a new vision statement: The Council for Professional Recognition envisions a society where all children learn and thrive in environments led by competent, valued early childhood educators. And we don’t have to strive for this goal alone. Since 2014, we’ve gained a wide range of allies who share our vision and show their support at our EELC. They know that giving children high-quality early learning holds big benefits for us all.